Kiliwa language

Kiliwa
Spoken in	Mexico
Region	Baja California
Ethnicity	Kiliwa
Native speakers	28  (1994)
Language family	Yuman–Cochimí Kiliwa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	klb

Kiliwa (in Kiliwa: K’olew Ñaja’) is a Yuman language spoken in Baja California, in the far northwest of Mexico, by the Kiliwa people. It may form part of the hypothetical Hokan linguistic phylum. Kiliwa is the southernmost representative of the family, and the one that is most distinct from the remaining Yuman languages, which constitute Core Yuman. The Kiliwa's neighbors to the south, the Cochimí, spoke a language or a family of languages that was probably closely related to but not within the Yuman family. Consequently, the Kiliwa lie at the historic "center of gravity" for the differentiation of Yuman from Cochimí and of the Yuman branches from each other.

The Kiliwa language was extensively studied by Mauricio J. Mixco, who published Kiliwa texts as well as a dictionary and studies of syntax.

Linguistic prehistorians are not in agreement as to whether the Kiliwa's linguistic ancestors are most likely to have migrated into the Baja California peninsula from the north separately from the ancestors of the Cochimí and the Core Yumans, or whether they became differentiated from those groups in place. The controversial technique of glottochronology suggests that the separation of Kiliwa from Core Yuman may have occurred about 2,000-3,000 years ago.

As recently as the 1930s, it was reported that members of the native community universally spoke Kiliwa as their first language. At the start of the twenty-first century, Kiliwa is still spoken; a 2000 census reported 52 speakers. However, the language is considered to be in danger of extinction.

Phonology

Consonants

p, t, c, k, kw, q, ?
(v), s, (SS), x, xw, (hw)
m, n, ny
r, l
(rl)
w, y

Vowels

i, u, ii, uu
a, aa

Pitch Accents

(1) High, (2) Falling, (3) Low

Morphology

The morphology in the Kiliwa language consists of many affixes and clitics. More of these are available on the verb rather than the noun. These affixes are usually untouched and added on to a modified root.

Syntax

Kiliwa is a verb-final language that usually follows the order subject-object-verb. Dependent object clause should be found before the verb, whereas relative or adjectival clauses appear to the right of the noun they modify.

Sources

• Mixco, Mauricio J. 1976. "Kiliwa Texts". International Journal of American Linguistics Native American Text Series 1:92-101.
• Mixco, Mauricio J. 1983. Kiliwa Texts: "When I Have Donned My Crest of Stars" University of Utah Anthropological Papers No. 107. Salt Lake City. (Myths and legends narrated by Rufino Ochurte and Braulio Espinosa after 1966.)

References

• Mixco, Mauricio J. 1971. Kiliwa Grammar. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley.
• Mixco, Mauricio J. 1977. "The Linguistic Affiliation of the Ñakipa and Yakakwal of Lower California". International Journal of American Linguistics 43:189-200.
• Mixco, Mauricio J. 1985. Kiliwa Dictionary. University of Utah Anthropological Papers No. 109. Salt Lake City.
• Mixco, Mauricio J. 1996. Kiliwa de Arroyo León, Baja California. Archivo de Lenguas Indígenas de México No. 18. Colegio de México, Mexico City.
• Mixco, Mauricio J. 2000. Kiliwa. Lincom, Munich, Germany.
• Mixco, Mauricio J. 2006. "The Indigenous Languages". In The Prehistory of Baja California: Advances in the Archaeology of the Forgotten Peninsula, edited by Don Laylander and Jerry D. Moore, pp. 24–41. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
• Moore, Jerry D. 2006. "The San Quintín-El Rosario Region". In The Prehistory of Baja California: Advances in the Archaeology of the Forgotten Peninsula, edited by Don Laylander and Jerry D. Moore, pp. 179–195. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
• Ochoa Zazueta, Jesús Ángel. 1978. Los kiliwa y el mundo se hizo así. Instituto Nacional Indigenista, Mexico City.

External links

• Kiliwa Swadesh vocabulary list (from Wiktionary)
• AULEX Spanish-Kiliwa dictionary